eBay now has an established NFT marketplace at its bidding

Image: eBay

eBay made its biggest move yet into the world of digital collectibles with the acquisition of NFT marketplace knownOrigin. The deal is closed as of June 21st, despite the online auction company keeping the value of the deal a secret.

David Moore said that the partnership would help attract a new wave of NFT creators.

One of the world's first and largest NFT marketplaces, known as knownOrigin, currently ranks 12th on all-time trading volume for ether-backed NFTs. Open Sea has an all-time trading value of $30.4 billion and Decentraland has a value of $155.66 million.

Last year, eBay began to allow NFT sales. With the acquisition of knownOrigin, eBay has the chance to control a proper digital marketplace where NFT transactions can be monitored and controlled.

Currently, approved sellers on eBay can list NFTs in the same format as a physical item, with many listings sharing the details of the NFT mint number and what digital wallet the buyer will need to receive the transfer post-sale. NFTs can't be sold with physical items.

eBay opened a real-world vault to protect physical collectibles, with the option of allowing instant digital sales of the items without ever shipping them out.

eBay has been pushing its collectibles business hard in the last year, expanding its authenticity guarantee and launching live auctions to showcase even more collectible items. The sale of collectible items is at an all-time high, and eBay is taking the opportunity to cover both digital and physical assets with the knownOrigin acquisition.